Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, speaks during the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Friday, Feb. 9, 2018. (Clive Mason/Pool Photo via AP)

Performer is seen during the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Friday, Feb. 9, 2018. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

A dancer performs during the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Friday, Feb. 9, 2018. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, front left, first lady Kim Jung-sook, second lady Karen Pence and United States Vice President Mike Pence observe with Kim Yong Nam, the 90-year-old president of the Presidium of the North’s Parliament, back left, and Kim Jong Un’s sister Kim Yo Jong during the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Friday, Feb. 9, 2018. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Fireworks go off after the Olympic flame was lit during the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Friday, Feb. 9, 2018. (Sean Haffey/Pool Photo via AP)

Kim Yo Jong, top right, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, sits alongside Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of North Korean Parliament, and behind U.S. Vice President Mike Pence as she watches the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Friday, Feb. 9, 2018. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, Pool)

The Olympic torch is carried into the stadium during the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Friday, Feb. 9, 2018. (Sean Haffey/Pool Photo via AP)

A dancer performs during the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Friday, Feb. 9, 2018. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

North Korea’s Jong Su Hyon, left, and South Korea’s Park Jong-ah carry the torch in the stadium during the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Friday, Feb. 9, 2018. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — The Taebaek Mountains, running along the eastern edge of Korean Peninsula uniting North and South Korea, were ablaze for all the world to see on a freezing Friday night, cast aglow by pyrotechnics, high-tech imagery and finally a cauldron towering over the athletes of 92 countries, lit by Olympic royalty.

Yet for all the fireworks and theatrics at Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium, the Opening Ceremony for the 2018 Olympic Games was marked by three simple acts, the most basic of human gestures.

About 10 minutes into the ceremony South Korea president Moon Jae-in and International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach were introduced to the crowd as they entered the VIP box. Moon walked over and shook hands with Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe and then turned and reached out to Kim Yo-jong, the younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and then to Kim Yong-nam, North Korea’s ceremonial head of state.

Later as athletes from the two Koreas entered the stadium together, walking side by side under the flag of a unified Korea, several of them with their arms around each other, North and South, Moon turned and again reached out and shook hands with Kim Yong-nam sitting two rows behind him. Kim appeared visibly moved by the moment.

Like the mountains that will host these Olympics for the next 17 days, reaching across the countries’ troubled border was a leading theme in the final weeks leading up to the Games even as Pyongyang and the White House kept the rhetoric cranked up.

Friday night hopes for improved relations between the two Koreas took center stage.

“While you compete with each other, you live peacefully together in the Olympic Village,” Bach told the athletes in his speech. “Respecting the same rules, sharing your meals and your emotions with your fellow athletes. This is how you show that in sport we are all equal. This is how you show the unique power of sport to unite people.

“A great example of this unifying power is the joint march here tonight for the two teams for the national Olympic committee from (South Korea) and (North Korea). We thank you. All the athletes around me, all the spectators here in the stadium and all the Olympic fans watching around the world, we’re all touched by this wonderful gesture. We all join and support you in your message of peace. United in our diversity, we are stronger than all the forces that want to divide us.

“Two years ago in Rio de Janeiro, with the first-ever refugee Olympic team, the IOC sent a powerful message of hope to the world. Now in Pyeongchang, the athletes from (South Korea) and (North Korea) by marching together send a powerful message of peace to the world.

“Let us share this Olympic experience with the world.”

Moon is the son of North Korean refugees who fled during U.S. bombing raids during the Korean War. He has made improving relations with North Korea a priority since his election last year following the impeachment of Park Geun-hye.

Longtime North Korea observers view the presence of Kim Yo Jong and Kim Yong Nam at the games as a sign that Pyongyang is also serious. Kim Yo Jong is considered a confidant of her older brother. Kim Yong Nam is the highest ranking North Korean official to visit South Korea since the end of the Korean War 55 years ago.

Vice President Mike Pence has not shared Bach’s enthusiasm for North Korea’s high profile at the Games.

“We will not allow North Korean propaganda to hijack the message and imagery of the Olympic Games,” Pence told reporters on a stopover in Japan this week. “We will not allow North Korea to hide behind the Olympic banner the reality that they enslave their people and threaten the wider region.”

Pence was supposed to sit at the same table as Moon and Kim Yong-nam at a pre-ceremony dinner Friday but left before the meal was served, according to Agence France Presse.

Bach, meanwhile was not nearly as conciliatory toward Russian athletes and sports officials as he was the Koreans.

Earlier Friday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport handed Bach and the IOC a victory when the Swiss-based tribunal dismissed an appeal by banned six-time Olympic short track champion Viktor Ahn and other Russian athletes and coaches seeking to take part in the Olympic Games.

The CAS decision avoided a showdown between the IOC and CAS over the participation of the banned Russian athletes in South Korea the next two weeks.

A week earlier, CAS overturned an IOC decision in December to ban 28 Russian athletes for life and strip them of their results at the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi after an IOC investigation showed the athletes took part in a widespread doping system orchestrated and financed by the highest level of Russian sport.

Bach and other top IOC officials braced for a similar setback when CAS decided to hear two appeals this week from a total of 45 Russian athletes and two coaches seeking to overturn the IOC decision not to invite them to the Olympic Games. After they passed a IOC vetting process that was a requirement for their participation in South Korea, 169 Russian athletes will compete in Pyeongchang under the banner of “Olympic Athletes from Russia.”

Instead, CAS rejected both appeals and Friday night Bach took a not so thinly veiled shot at the Russians in his speech.

“Dear athletes, it’s your turn,” Bach said. “This will be the competition of your lives. Over the next days, the world will be looking to you for inspiration. You will inspire us all to live together in peace and harmony despite all the differences we have. You will inspire us by competing for the highest honor in the Olympic spirit of excellence, respect and fair play. You can only really enjoy your Olympic performance if you respect the rules and stay clean. Only then will your lifetime memories be the memories of a true and worthy Olympian.”

Ahn wasn’t the only high-profile speed skater absent from the ceremony.

Team USA entered the stadium dressed in Ralph Lauren parkas that came equipped with what the company described as a “heating element” to fight against the night’s 10 degrees F temperature. Speed skater Shani Davis, a two-time Olympic champion, didn’t make the parade.

Davis is upset about how the U.S. flag bearer was selected. Each of the U.S. Olympic Committee’s eight national governing bodies votes on the position. This year, the vote was split 4-4 between Davis, the first African American to win an Winter Olympic Games gold medal in an individual event, and luger Erin Hamlin, a two-time World champion and four-time Olympian. The matter was finally decided by a coin toss, with Hamlin winning.

“I am an American and when I won the 1000m in 2010 I became the first American to 2-peat in that event,” Davis tweeted. “@TeamUSA dishonorably tossed a coin to decide its 2018 flag bearer. No problem. I can wait until 2022. #BlackHistoryMonth2018 #PyeongChang2018.”

Davis refused to speak to reporters after his training session Friday afternoon.

The controversy will likely follow Davis through the Olympic speed skating program.

Friday night, however, it seemed like a minor issue as Yuna Kim, South Korea’s Olympic skating champion, known to her countrymen and millions of fans as simply Queen Yuna, lit the Olympic cauldron, casting a new light across the mountains and two countries they connect.

Scott M. Reid is a sports enterprise/investigative reporter for the Orange County Register. He also covers Olympic and international sports as well as the Los Angeles’ bid to host the 2024 Olympic Games. His work for the Register has led to investigations by the International Olympic Committee, the U.S. Department of Education, the California Legislature, and the national governing bodies for gymnastics and swimming. Reid's 2011 reporting on wide spread sexual abuse within USA Gymnastics and the governing body's failure to effectively address it led to Don Peters, coach of the 1984 record-setting Olympic team, being banned from the sport for life. His reporting also prompted USA Gymnastics to adopt new guidelines and policies dealing with sexual abuse. Reid's 2012 and 2013 reporting on sexual abuse within USA Swimming led to the banishment of two top level coaches. Reid has won 11 Associated Press Sports Editors awards for investigative reporting since 1999. He has also been honored by APSE for game writing, and enterprise, news, and beat reporting. He was an Investigative Reporters and Editors award finalist in 2002 and 2003. Prior to joining the Register in 1996, Reid worked for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Dallas Times Herald. He has a B.A. in the History of the Americas from the University of Washington.

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